You Will Need
Texts
The Princess and the Pea by Lauren Child
The Princess and the Pea by Rachel Isadora
The Pea and the Princess by Mini Grey
You will also need any version available of The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Anderson
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English Blocks or English Plans?
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Free English Resources on Hamilton
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Hamilton Group Readers
Hamilton have produced books in printed and digital formats specially for children to read in small groups.
Fiction
English Year 4 Spring Traditional Tales and Fables
Fairy Tales and Playscripts
Using versions of Princess and the Pea, explore, compare, write fairytales with a twisted point of view. Study dialogue, tense, pronouns. Role-play /write playscripts. Perform to an audience.
We recommend that you start with the core unit, the heart of this English block of study. This introduces key textual material and sets the tone for any further units you wish to teach. These can be selected on the basis of the needs of your class – look at the green icons to identify the unit’s particular focus: SPAG, Composition or Comprehension. Whichever units you choose, we suggest teaching them in order, as there is a built-in progression indicated by the numbering.
‘UNIT PLAN’ gives you a text version of all parts of the unit to use in your school planning documentation. ‘DOWNLOAD ALL FILES’ gives you that unit plan plus all of the associated documents.
Unit 1 Core Unit: Read and analyse different versions of the Princess and the Pea
(suggested as 4 days)
Objectives
Spoken Language
-- Gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener.
-- Participate in performances.
-- Use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas.
-- Participate in performances.
Word Reading
None for this unit
Comprehension
-- Increase their familiarity with a wide range of books, including fairy stories, myths and legends, and retell some of these orally.
-- Listen to and discuss a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks.
-- Check that the text makes sense to them, discuss their understanding and explain the meaning of words in context.
-- Participate in discussion about both books that are read to them and those they can read for themselves, taking turns and listening to what others say.
-- Draw inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justify inferences with evidence.
-- Discuss words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest and imagination.
-- Identify how language, structure, and presentation contribute to meaning.
Composition
-- Compose and rehearse sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures.
Grammar
None for this unit
Teaching and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Look at the first paragraph of the Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Anderson and from this make predictions about the type of story and likely content. Read the whole of the story and author profile of Hans Christian Anderson. Model how the story can be told from a story map.
Activity
Practise telling the story and perform to small groups of other children. Teach the idea of innovation. Look closely at illustrations of the bed from three different versions of the story.
Day 2 Teaching
Read an extract from the version by Lauren Child and look carefully at what we learn about the character and the setting. Find where this extract fits on our story map from the previous lesson.
Activity
Answer questions from other extracts from Lauren Child’s version. Read an author profile of Lauren Child and compare her with Hans Christian Anderson. Make notes about how she has innovated the story.
Day 3 Teaching
Practise the re-telling of the story and then explore images from Rachel Isadora’s version. Speculate about how this innovates the story and read an author profile about her.
Activity
Sequence images from Rachel Isadora’s version of the story and write sentences about them. Read and discuss her version and make short notes about how she has innovated the story.
Day 4 Teaching
Practise the re-telling of the story and then read an author profile of Mini Grey. Explain how she has innovated by focussing on another character. List characters and hot-seat some of these.
Activity
Work with a partner to speculate about what another character would say about the events in the story. Enjoy reading The Pea and the Princess. Perform re-tellings to your chosen audience.
Unit 2 SPAG: Identifying and using pronouns, including for cohesion
(suggested as 4 days)
Objectives
Spoken Language
-- Use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas.
Word Reading
None for this unit
Comprehension
-- Listen to and discuss a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks.
Transcription
None for this unit
Composition
-- Propose changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency, including the accurate use of pronouns in sentences.
-- In narratives, create settings, characters and plot.
-- Assess the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggesting improvements.
Grammar
-- Choose nouns or pronouns appropriately for clarity and cohesion and to avoid repetition.
You Will Need
Texts
The Princess and the Pea by Rachel Isadora
Presentations
SPAG PowerPoint: Personal and Possessive Pronouns and Determiners
Teaching and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Use an adapted blurb from The Princess and the Pea by Rachel Isadora to introduce the idea of pronouns. Teach more about these using a PowerPoint that uses illustrations from Rachel Isadora’s book.
Activity
Work through activities that practise the use of pronouns. These include identifying pronouns; choosing pronouns so that sentences make sense and improving a whole piece of prose by adding pronouns. Listen to the spoken versions of The Princess and the Pea from Unit 1 and notice how pronouns are used in these.
Day 2 Teaching
Look in detail at Rachel Isadora’s illustration of the marriage. Read sentences that have been written about this picture and identify some of the pronouns that have been used. Use a Powerpoint to teach the difference between possessive pronouns and possessive determiners.
Activity
Improve a piece of writing about a Rachel Isadora illustration, adding pronouns and possessive determiners. Write about another illustration using pronouns and possessive determiners. Look at a piece of artwork that inspired Rachel Isadora and see what happens when pronouns are overused.
Day 3 Teaching
Use a Powerpoint to explore how pronouns help a story to flow. Think again about innovation and start to consider other settings for The Princess and the Pea.
Activity
Create and make a new Prince or Princess and then write about them using pronouns and possessive determiners. Give feedback to one another about cohesion, clarity and the avoidance of repetition.
SPAG: Grammar and Punctuation
Personal and Possessive Pronouns and Determiners PowerPoint
This presentation teaches children about personal and possessive pronouns. It points out the difference between possessive determiners and possessive pronouns and then demonstrates how we use pronouns to add cohesion.
Unit 3 SPAG: Writing imaginative and correctly punctuated dialogue
(suggested as 3 days)
Objectives
Spoken Language
-- Use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas.
Word Reading
None for this unit
Comprehension
-- Draw inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justify inferences with evidence.
Transcription
None for this unit
Composition
None for this unit
Grammar
-- Use and punctuate direct speech (including punctuation within and surrounding inverted commas).
You Will Need
Texts
The Princess and the Pea by Lauren Child
Presentations
SPAG: Dialogue Punctuation
Teaching and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Look at the way that Lauren Child uses dialogue for characterisation in her version of The Princess and the Pea. Use a PowerPoint to learn the rules of punctuating dialogue.
Activity
Practise punctuating dialogue: adding speech mark, separating reporting clauses and writing new dialogue. Look in more depth at the way that dialogue draws characters in Lauren Child’s writing.
Day 2 Teaching
Look at an illustration from Lauren Child’s book and imagine what the characters might be saying. Revisit rules of punctuating dialogue and then practise using the speech imagined from the illustrations.
Activity
Create speech to go inside speech-bubbles added to Lauren Child’s illustrations. Punctuate this speech and check one another’s work. Watch an interview with Lauren Child and together write some quotes.
Day 3 Teaching
Explore the characters of the princesses that the prince visited. Role-play these characters and think of the questions that the prince might have asked.
Activity
Improvise scenes where the prince meets the princesses. Write some of the dialogue created. Check that others’ dialogue is punctuated correctly.
SPAG: Grammar and Punctuation
Dialogue Punctuation PowerPoint
This presentation take children through dialogue punctuation, reinforcing what they remember correctly and addressing any misconceptions.
Unit 4 SPAG: Understanding and using the perfect form of the past tense
(suggested as 3 days)
Objectives
Spoken Language
None for this unit
Word Reading
None for this unit
Comprehension
-- Draw inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justify inferences with evidence.
-- Predict what might happen from details stated and implied.
Transcription
None for this unit
Composition
None for this unit
Grammar
-- Use the present and past tenses correctly and consistently. [Revision of Year 2 objective].
-- Use the present perfect form of verbs in contrast to the past tense.
-- Use the present and past tenses correctly and consistently. [Revision of Year 2 objective].
You Will Need
Texts
The Pea and the Princess by Mini Grey
Presentations
SPAG PowerPoint: Perfect Form
Teaching and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Read the start of The Pea and the Princess by Mini Grey, using a re-write of the first page and a PowerPoint to revise past and present tense.
Activity
Write about characters from the story: the Queen; the Prince and the Princesses. Look at the tenses of this writing and transform sentences from one tense to another.
Day 2 Teaching
Look carefully at the dramatic appearance of ‘the girl’ in Mini Grey’s version of the story. Read a synopsis of the story so far, written in the present perfect form. Use this and a PowerPoint to introduce this form.
Activity
Transform sentences about ‘the girl’, practising the use of the perfect form. Search for examples of different tenses in reading books and use these or an example piece of writing to start to talk about the effects of these different tenses.
Day 3 Teaching
Read to the end of The Pea and the Princess. Look carefully at the end of the story and have fun thinking about the Queen’s thoughts. Use these and a PowerPoint to consolidate children’s understanding of the present perfect form.
Activity
Write in the present perfect form about the illustration of the palace allotment at the start and end of the book. Use a PowerPoint to explore two reasons for using the present perfect form.
SPAG: Grammar and Punctuation
Perfect Form PowerPoint
The past tense is revised so that children can identify it. Then children are introduced to the Perfect Form and recognise how to form it and when to use it, understanding its significance in relation to meaning.
Unit 5 Composition: Extended writing: creating and writing a playscript
(suggested as 4 days)
Objectives
Spoken Language
-- Gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s).
-- Maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments.
-- Participate in performances.
Word Reading
None for this unit
Comprehension
-- Increase their familiarity with a wide range of books, including fairy stories, myths and legends, and retell some of these orally.
Transcription
None for this unit
Composition
-- Discuss writing similar to that which they are planning to write in order to understand and learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar.
-- Compose and rehearse sentences orally.
-- Discuss and record ideas.
-- Assess the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggest improvements
-- Propose changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency, including the accurate use of pronouns in sentences.
-- Proofread for spelling and punctuation errors.
Grammar
-- Use the present perfect form of verbs in contrast to the past tense.
-- Choose nouns or pronouns appropriately for clarity and cohesion and to avoid repetition.
You Will Need
Texts
Beware of the Storybook Wolves by Lauren Child
Presentations
SPAG PowerPoint: Personal and Possessive Pronouns and Determiners
SPAG PowerPoint: Perfect Form
Teaching and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Read the start of The Pea and the Princess by Mini Grey, using a re-write of the first page and a PowerPoint to revise past and present tense.
Activity
Write about characters from the story: the Queen; the Prince and the Princesses. Look at the tenses of this writing and transform sentences from one tense to another.
Day 2 Teaching
Look carefully at the dramatic appearance of ‘the girl’ in Mini Grey’s version of the story. Read a synopsis of the story so far, written in the present perfect form. Use this and a PowerPoint to introduce this form.
Activity
Transform sentences about ‘the girl’, practising the use of the perfect form. Search for examples of different tenses in reading books and use these or an example piece of writing to start to talk about the effects of these different tenses.
Day 3 Teaching
Read to the end of The Pea and the Princess. Look carefully at the end of the story and have fun thinking about the Queen’s thoughts. Use these and a PowerPoint to consolidate children’s understanding of the present perfect form.
Activity
Write in the present perfect form about the illustration of the palace allotment at the start and end of the book. Use a PowerPoint to explore two reasons for using the present perfect form.
SPAG: Grammar and Punctuation
Personal and possessive pronouns and determiners PowerPoint
This presentation teaches children about personal and possessive pronouns. It points out the difference between possessive determiners and possessive pronouns and then demonstrates how we use pronouns to add cohesion.
Perfect Form PowerPoint
The past tense is revised so that children can identify it. Then children are introduced to the Perfect Form and recognise how to form it and when to use it, understanding its significance in relation to meaning.